Spatial Registration of Tracking System with an Image Using Two-Dimensional Image Projections

1. A method comprising: acquiring a first two-dimensional projection image using a medical imaging modality, the first projection image including a two-dimensional field of view that includes a patient and a multi-modal marker; acquiring a second two-dimensional projection image using the medical imaging modality, the second projection image including the patient and the multi-modal marker and being along a non-coincident angle with respect to the first projection image, predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker being visible in the first projection image and the second projection image and having a known location and orientation with respect to at least one sensor that is detectable by a tracking system, wherein the at least one sensor is attached to the multi-modal marker or the multi-modal marker includes the at least one sensor; estimating a three-dimensional position for the predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker with respect to a coordinate system of the medical imaging modality according to locations of the predetermined portions in each of the respective first and second projection images; and determining an affine transformation for registering a three-dimensional coordinate system of the tracking system with a three-dimensional coordinate system of the medical imaging modality based on the estimated position for the respective predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker and a known relationship of the at least one sensor and the predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the affine transformation is a first affine transformation, the method further comprising: deriving respective forward projections from a prior three-dimensional image that correspond to each of the first two-dimensional projection image and the second two-dimensional projection image; and determining a second affine transformation from the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality to the coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image based on registering the first and second projection images with the respective forward projections.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a three-dimensional mesh model is derived from the prior three-dimensional image to represent an anatomical structure of the patient in the coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image, and wherein the respective forward projections from the prior three-dimensional image are determined based on the mesh model.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the second affine transformation further comprises: identifying a common set of features in each of the first and second projection images and the prior three-dimensional image; determining locations for at least some of the common set of features in the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality and in the coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image; and computing the second affine transformation as a respective transform matrix configured to align the locations determined for the common set of features in one of the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality or the coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first affine transformation is computed by one of an error minimization function or a change of basis function, and wherein the second affine transformation is computed by an error minimization function.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-modal marker includes a chamber and at least one port to access the chamber, the chamber having a predetermined spatial position and orientation with respect to each sensor, wherein the multi-modal marker is fixed with respect to the patient during the acquisition of the first and second projection images, and wherein the multi-modal marker includes a contrast agent within the chamber during the acquisition of the first and second projection images such that the chamber is visible in each of the first and second projection images, the method further comprising: adding a volume of the contrast agent to the chamber via the port before the acquisition of the first and second projection images to render the chamber visible in images acquired by the medical imaging modality; and removing the contrast agent from the chamber after the acquisition of the first and second projection images such that the chamber is not visible in subsequent images acquired by the medical imaging modality.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the medical imaging modality is configured to acquire images using an ionizing radiation.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the medical imaging modality comprises a C-arm having a center of rotation, the method further comprising defining an origin of the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality with respect to the center of rotation of the C-arm.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second projection images are selected from a group comprising: a right anterior oblique projection, a left anterior oblique projection and an anterior-posterior projection.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-coincident angle is less than or equal to 90 degrees.

11. A system comprising: one or more non-transitory computer-readable media to store data and instructions executable by a processor, the data comprising: two-dimensional image data that includes at least one two-dimensional image acquired by a medical imaging modality to include a patient and a multi-modal marker, predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker being visible in the at least one two-dimensional image and having a known location and orientation with respect to at least one tracking sensor that is detectable by a tracking system, wherein the at least one tracking sensor is attached to the multi-modal marker or the multi-modal marker includes the at least one tracking sensor; the instructions programmed to perform a method comprising: estimating a three-dimensional position for predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker with respect to a coordinate system of the medical imaging modality according to respective locations of the predetermined portions in each of the at least one two-dimensional image; and determining an affine transformation for registering a three-dimensional coordinate system of the tracking system with a three-dimensional coordinate system of the medical imaging modality based on the estimated position for the respective predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker and a known relationship of the at least one tracking sensor and the predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one two-dimensional image is a first two-dimensional image, and wherein the two-dimensional image data further includes a second two-dimensional image acquired by the medical imaging modality, the second two-dimensional image including the patient and the multi-modal marker and being along a non-coincident angle with respect to the first two-dimensional image.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the affine transformation is a first affine transformation and the method performed by the instructions further comprises: deriving respective forward projections from a prior three-dimensional image that correspond to each two-dimensional image; and determining a second affine transformation between the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality and the coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image based on registering each of the two-dimensional images with the respective forward projections.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein a three-dimensional mesh model is derived from the prior three-dimensional image to represent an anatomical structure of the patient in the coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image, and wherein the respective forward projections from the prior three-dimensional image are determined as projections based on the mesh model.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein determining the second affine transformation further comprises: identifying a common set of features in the prior three-dimensional image and each of the two-dimensional images and; determining locations for at least some of the common set of features in the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality and in the coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image; and computing the second affine transformation as a respective transform matrix configured to align the locations determined for the common set of features in one of the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality or the coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first affine transformation is computed by one of an error minimization function or a change of basis function, and wherein the second affine transformation is computed by an error minimization function.

17. The system of claim 11 , further comprising the multi-modal marker, the multi-modal marker including a chamber and at least one port to access the chamber, the chamber having a predetermined spatial position and orientation with respect to the at least one tracking sensor, wherein the multi-modal marker is fixed with respect to the patient during the acquisition of the first and second images, and wherein the multi-modal marker includes a volume of fluid contrast agent within the chamber during the acquisition of the first and second images such that the chamber is visible in each of the first and second images.

18. The system of claim 11 , further comprising the medical imaging modality, wherein the medical imaging modality is configured to acquire each of the at least one two-dimensional image using an ionizing radiation.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the medical imaging modality comprises a C-arm having a center of rotation, wherein an origin of the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality is defined with respect to the center of rotation of the C-arm.

20. The system of of claim 12 , wherein the non-coincident angle is less than or equal to 90 degrees.

21. A system comprising: one or more non-transitory computer-readable media to store data and instructions executable by a processor, the data comprising: prior three-dimensional image data acquired for a patient; two-dimensional image data that includes at least one two-dimensional image acquired by a medical imaging modality to include the patient and a multi-modal marker, predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker being visible in the at least one two-dimensional image and having a known location and orientation with respect to at least one tracking sensor that is detectable by a tracking system, wherein the at least one tracking sensor is attached to the multi-modal marker or the multi-modal marker includes the at least one tracking sensor; the instructions programmed to perform a method comprising: deriving respective forward projections from the prior three-dimensional image data that correspond to each two-dimensional image; and determining an affine transformation between a coordinate system of the medical imaging modality and a coordinate system of the prior three-dimensional image based on registering each two-dimensional image with the respective forward projections.

22. The system of claim 21 , wherein the affine transformation is a first affine transformation, and the method performed by the instructions further comprises: estimating a three-dimensional position for predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker with respect to the coordinate system of the medical imaging modality according to respective locations of the predetermined portions in each of the at least one two-dimensional image; and determining a second affine transformation for registering a three-dimensional coordinate system of the tracking system with a three-dimensional coordinate system of the medical imaging modality based on the estimated position for the respective predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker and a known relationship of the at least one tracking sensor and the predetermined portions of the multi-modal marker.

23. The system of claim 21 , wherein the at least one two-dimensional image is a first two-dimensional image, and wherein the two-dimensional image data further includes a second two-dimensional image acquired by the medical imaging modality, the second two-dimensional image including the patient and the multi-modal marker and being along a non-coincident angle with respect to the first two-dimensional image.